In Fall 2024, FRA launched the Grade Crossing Toolkit, an interactive resource to identify effective highway-rail grade crossing safety measures. The Grade Crossing Toolkit is useful for individuals who work in railroad safety and for researchers, community members, or other individuals or organizations with an interest in improving safety at grade crossings. 

Accidents at grade crossings—intersections where roads cross railroad tracks at-grade—is the second leading cause of rail-related deaths in the United States. Nationally, more than 2,000 incidents and 200 fatalities at grade crossings occur each year. Selecting helpful strategies and measures can be challenging. The Grade Crossing Toolkit aims to simplify this task by providing summarized information about potential strategies and measures along with evidence of effectiveness and examples of lessons learned.

User-Friendly Interface

The Grade Crossing Toolkit allows you to easily find strategies and measures most relevant to your situation. You can enter search terms to narrow the search or filter by various factors including the incident type (non-motorized users, motor vehicles, or both), the type of problem (warning device violation, congestion at the crossing, incursion into the right-of-way, blocked crossing, or vehicle hang-up), the type of strategies (education, enforcement, engineering, data-driven), or any combination of these categories. You also can look for specific types of measures, including:

• Risk Assessment – Measures that focus on data-driven activities to identify areas most in need of mitigation efforts.
• Policy and Enforcement – Measures that create or carry out safety policies on railroad property.
• Collaboration, Training, and Education – Measures that focus on stakeholder coordination, employee training, and education.
• Public Communication – Measures to inform the public. 
• Physical Barriers – Measures that act as physical deterrents within a specified location.
• Detection and Lighting – Measures that use sensors and/or lighting to increase the detection of individuals and influence their behavior on railroad property.
• Infrastructure Modification – Measures that create physical changes to stations, rights-of-way, or locomotives.
• Post-Incident Management – Measures to improve post-incident procedures and mitigate the effects of incidents after they occur.